A study of the incidence of apoptosis in the human placental cells in the last weeks of pregnancy.

A prospective study to determine whether there is a progressive increase in the number of apoptotic cells in the trophoblasts in the placentae of the final few weeks (39 - 41 weeks) of human uncomplicated pregnancy was carried out at a teaching hospital in Sri Lanka between July 1999 and July 2001. Thirty placentae were collected at delivery following uncomplicated singleton pregnancies. The gestation of 15 were from 37 and 1 day to 39 weeks (Group 1) and the other 15 were from 39 and 1 day to 41 weeks (Group 2).